This book closes with the next two psalms which are an evidently antithetical pair, each by a different route tending, and contributing, to the end of the Lord, His mercy in saving Israel to His own praise. The one recounts the good ways of Jehovah in grace with His people according to His promises, that they might keep His statutes and observe His laws; the other confesses the evil works of Israel in ungrateful forgetfulness, rebellion, and idolatry. Yet Jehovah's ear is open to their repentant cry, as His hand to deliver; hence their prayer to “Jehovah our God,” “Save us,” and “gather us from among the Gentiles” to give thanks to His holy name and to triumph in His praise, as will surely be at the end of this age.
Psalm 105
“Give thanks unto Jehovah, call upon his name; make known his acts among the peoples. Sing unto him, sing psalms (or play) unto him; talk of all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name; glad be the heart of those that inquire for Jehovah. Seek Jehovah and his strength, inquire for his face continually. Remember his wondrous works which he hath done, his miracles and the judgments of his mouth, O seed of Abraham his servant, sons of Jacob, his chosen (ones). He, Jehovah, [is] our God; in all the earth [are] his judgments. He remembered forever his covenant, a word he commanded to a thousand generations which he ratified (cut) with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac, and he confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel an everlasting covenant, saying, To thee will I give the land of Canaan, lot (line) of your inheritance, when they were even to be numbered as a few and sojourners in it. And they walked from nation to nation, from a kingdom to another people. He suffered no man to oppress them and reproved kings for their sakes, [saying] Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. And he called a famine on the land; every staff of bread he broke. He sent a man before them; Joseph was sold for a slave. They hurt with the fetters his feet; [into] iron went his soul, until the time his word came; Jehovah's saying tried him. A king sent and loosed him, a ruler of peoples, and set him free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possession, to bind his princes at his pleasure (soul) and make his elders wise. And Israel came [into] Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in Ham's land. And he fructified his people greatly and made him stronger than his enemies. He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants. He sent Moses his servant, land] Aaron whom he chose. They set among them wads of his signs and wonders in Ham's land. He sent darkness and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word. He turned their waters to blood and killed their fish. Their land swarmed with frogs in their king's chambers. He spoke, and dog-flies came, lice (or gnats) in all their border. He made (or gave) them storms of hail, flames of fire in their land; and he smote their vines and fig trees, and broke the trees of their border. He spoke, and locusts came and canker worm, and there was no number; and they devoured every herb in their land and ate the fruit of their ground. And he smote every firstborn in their land, firstfruits of their strength. And he brought them out with silver and gold, and there was not among their tribes a stumbling [one.] Egypt was glad at their departure, for their fear fell upon them. He spread a cloud for a covering and fire to give light [by] night. [The people] asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with bread of heaven. He opened a rock, and waters gushed forth; they ran in the dry places, a river. For he remembered his holy word [and] Abraham his servant; and brought forth his people with joy, his chosen with shouting. And he gave them lands of Gentiles, and they inherited the nations' soil, that they might keep his statutes and observe his laws. Praise ye Jah” (vers. 1-48).
Psalm 106
“Praise ye Jah (Hallelujah). Give thanks unto Jehovah, for [he is] good, for his mercy [is] forever. Who shall tell the powers of Jehovah—shall utter all his praise? Blessed they that keep judgment, he that doeth righteousness at every time. Remember me in the favor of the people, visit me with (in) thy salvation; to look on (in) the good of thy chosen, to rejoice in the joy of thy nation, to glory with thine inheritance. We have sinned with our fathers, we have been perverse, we have done wickedly. Our fathers in Egypt understood not thy wonders; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies, but rebelled at the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name's sake, to make known his power. And he rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; and he made them walk through the depths as the wilderness. And he saved them from the hater's hand and redeemed them from the enemy's hand. And waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. Then (and) believed they his words, they sang his praise, They hasted, they forgot his works, they waited not for his counsel, and lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God (El) in the desert. And he gave them their requests, and sent leanness into their soul. And they were envious of Moses in the camp, of Aaron, saint of Jehovah. Earth openeth and swalloweth up Dathan, and covereth Abiram's company. And a fire burneth in their company, a flame consumeth wicked ones. They make a calf in Horeb and bow down to a molten image, and change their glory for the likeness of an ox eating grass. They forget God (El) their Savior that did great things in Egypt, wondrous works in Ham's land, terrible things at the Red Sea. And he said he would destroy them, had not Moses stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying. And they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word, but murmured in their tents; they did not hearken to Jehovah's voice. And he lifted up his hand to them, to make them fall in the wilderness and to make their seed fall among the Gentiles, and to scatter them in the lands. And they joined themselves to Baal-Peor and ate sacrifices of dead (beings). And they provoked him by their actions, and the plague broke out among them. Then stood up Phinehas and executed judgment, and the plague was stayed. And it was reckoned to him for righteousness to generation and generation for evermore. And they angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account; for they provoked his spirit, and he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. They destroyed not the peoples as (which) Jehovah said to them; but they mingled with the Gentiles and learned their doings, and served their idols, which became a snare unto them. And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, and shed innocent blood, blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. And they were defiled in their doings, and went a whoring in their actions. And Jehovah's anger was kindled at his people, and he abhorred his inheritance, and he gave them into the Gentiles' hand, and over them ruled! their haters, and their enemies oppressed them, and they were bowed down under their hand. Many times he delivereth them, and they rebel in their counsel and were brought low by their iniquity. But he regarded them in the distress when he heard them cry. And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies, and he gave them compassion before all that took them captives. Save us, Jehovah our God, and gather us from among the Gentiles to give thanks unto thy holy name, to glory in thy praise. Blessed [be] Jehovah God of Israel from the everlasting and into the everlasting! And let all the people say, Amen Hallelujah (Praise ye Jah)” (vers. 1-48).
In Psa. 105 only divine goodness appears to Israel, and His judgments on their enemies, ending in Hallelujah. In Psa. 106, which begins and ends with Hallelujah, we have, only Israel's bad ways confessed and divine mercy on their cry, as the ground for salvation and deliverance from among the Gentiles to triumph in Jehovah's praise.